Detailed suggestions for giving a presentation In addition to the presentation guidelines in the IS, here are some detailed suggestions that may help you get ready for your presentation. Please also have a look at the review form in the IS, in order to understand what I will look out for when going over your presentations 😊 I Before you start, discuss the questions with your classmates. a) Have you ever spoken in public? What was the occasion? Did you enjoy it? b) Some people say public speaking is much feared (glossophobia, stage fright), just above death. Do you agree? Why do we tend to be afraid of public speaking? c) Do you know some tips to help a person overcome fear of public speaking? d) What do you think makes a successful presentation? II The teacher will show you (parts of) two presentations on health-related topics. With your colleague, discuss which one you would enjoy better and why. Clips to see: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K4Tm0hDJdoE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lL3qzjKkirs III Presentation structure – Introduction A good presentation needs to be structured to make it easier for the audience to follow. This can be done in a very simple way, following the basic idea of telling the audience three times what they need to hear. In the introduction you tell them what you’re going to tell them. Then you go through each key message one by one, and in the conclusion, you tell them what you told them. Why is this important? Well, audiences are very bad listeners. It is estimated that an audience will probably forget about 80% of what you say. Your job as a presenter is to make sure that the 20% that the audience remembers is the 20% that you want them to remember. Your presentation structure then may then look more or less like this: In your classroom-based presentation, you will also be responsible for initiating and managing the Q&A session – which is not an optional add-on but an integral part of the presentation. The texts, exercises, etc. in this unit offer some guidance on how to proceed through individual stages of your presentation. 2 Closing a) The techniques that you can use to open a presentation will also work well to close one. Remember, this is your last chance to get your message across. This is what a Harvard Law School presentation coach has to say about a presentation closing. How much to you agree with her? Try to make your last line or two truly eloquent, meaningful, touching, accurate and wise. Always memorise your last few lines. This is the time to deliver straight to them: eye to eye, person to person. Try to leave them with a thought that will continue to provide an echo after you stop. – S. Hamlin b) The expressions below can be used as part of the indicated closing technique in the table below. Fill the gaps with the words in the box. CLOSES SUMMARY Let’s take a look back at what we’ve spoken about… Here, at a glance, are the main points I’ve made… So, how to sum up? In a nutshell, then… WORDS OF WISDOM I’m reminded of the words of… We have a saying from where I come from… In the famous words of… CALL FOR ACTION Now let’s get out there and…! I’m counting on you to… So, next time you…, remember to… PERSONAL/EMOTIONAL INVOLVEMENT If you take just one thing from this talk, take this… In the end, this is what matters. So what does that really mean for you – personally? IV Content and Structure 1 Make sure your content is narrow and specific enough. If you decide to make a presentation on neurological disorders, focus only on one of them. If you decide to talk about surgery, choose one (sub)type only – e.g. hip replacement etc. Nothing has a greater potential to kill your presentation than tiring your audience off with endless lists of various subcategories within your chosen topic! Show that you know where the area you focus on stands in a broader context (e.g. that malaria is an infectious tropical disease) and then jump straight into it! When your topic is sufficiently narrowed down and specific, your presentation can make a powerful impact and keep your audience interested. 2 Omne trium perfectum – every set of three is complete. When it comes to the structure of your main talk, it has proved useful to divide a message into three chunks. Most people don’t have the memory or attention to remember five or six main points; however, three is a number people seem to be uniquely attuned to recall. The Rule of Three will boost the memory of your audience and can even help you remember your main points while you speak. 3 Choose a topic you are sufficiently interested in, if not downright passionate about! This will keep you moving on in your research and content creation and help you make a real impact on your audience. As has been powerfully stated: ‘If it matters to you, it will matter to them!’ Preparation, passion, and performance – these are the major building blocks of your presentation! 4 When the content of your presentation is captivating enough, it should spontaneously generate questions or comments from your audience to which you should react adequately. If it does not, however, you need to be prepared for this situation and have questions or a short quiz up your sleeve to e.g. check your audience’s attention etc. In any case, you as a presenter are responsible for there being a discussion inspired by the message(s) of your talk. 5 Timing. Your presentation is supposed to last between 8-10 minutes. V. Language: 1 Vocabulary: You will need to accurately use a sufficient range of vocabulary, with a special focus on the technical vocabulary pertaining to your topic. Make sure you know how to pronounce these words and be ready to explain their meaning to a general or semi-professional audience. 2 Grammar: You are supposed to use reasonably complex grammar structures (e.g. modal verbs with present or past infinitives to express a degree of certainty; second and third conditionals to speculate about the unreal effects of unreal causes etc.). You will also be expected to include cohesive devices to support the logical structure of your talk, to guide your audience through the content, to show the cause and effect, relationships, to contrast and compare, etc. VI. Signposting [ ]A presentation is very much like a journey. We need to explain: ‘Where are we going?’ And then along that journey as we move through it, we need to explain how we’re moving on. – R. Geraghty Once you have laid out your key messages and an overall structure, you need to guide your audience through your presentation. Audiences like to know where they are in a presentation, and the best way to do this is to remind them frequently by making it clear when one section has finished, and another is about to begin. By clearly announcing the beginnings and endings of each section, the presentation becomes easier to follow. This achieves two things: a) If someone has stopped listening, they get a chance to join in again when the new section begins. Because the presentation is easy to follow, the audience starts to trust the presenter more. S/he appears to be in control, and that can only be a good thing. 1 Signposting phrases for the overall presentation structure. Match the expressions below to the correct presentation section. INTRODUCTION Now, today I’d like to talk to you about… I’m going to go through three points. First of all, I’ll talk about… Secondly, I’ll cover… And finally, I want to discuss… Thank you for coming today. MAIN TALK – MOVING BETWEEN MESSAGES So let’s start with… That more or less covers… This brings me to my second point. Let’s move on to the last point. CLOSING In conclusion, … That brings me to the end of my presentation. Thank you (for your attention). 2 Signposting phrases for moving between messages. Below are some phrases for guiding your audience through your messages. INTRODUCING A MESSAGE ENDING A MESSAGE MOVING FROM ONE MESSAGE TO THE NEXT Now let’s look at… Now I’d like (you) to consider… I’d like to begin by… That’s enough (for now) about… That (more or less / about) covers all I wanted to say about… That was my first point. Now I’d like to… Moving on (from …) to… Turning now to… VII Survival Tactics When you deliver your presentation, it is very likely that you will make a few mistakes as you go. Occasional slips of the tongue, grammar mishaps, your mind goes blank and you cannot recall the right word, or you realise you have forgotten to mention a point. There is nothing tragic about it when it happens here and there and, in all likelihood, you are not going to be penalised for an occasional lapse. It only shows you are human, which is a good thing. The essential thing is not to panic. Acknowledge your mistake, make fun of it, briefly put things right if needed and just move on. Don´t be excessively apologetic. Below are some examples of language to help you manage some tricky situations with relative ease. 1 Match the phrases on the left with the ones on the right. More than one combination for each situation are possible. What you think What you say 1 I´ve got my facts wrong! a So, basically, what I´m saying is this. 2 Too fast! Go back! b Sorry, what´s the word for …? 3 I´ve forgotten to say something! c (Sorry), let me rephrase that. 4 Too complicated! Make it simple. d (Sorry), what I meat is this. 5 I´m talking nonsense. e So, just to give you the main points here. 6 How do you say that in English? f So, let´s just recap on that. 7 Wrong! Try again. g (Sorry), I should just mention one thing. 8 I´m running out of time! h (Sorry), perhaps I didn´t make that quite clear. VIII Using visual aids Slides need to communicate their message instantly. If the audience has to work hard to read the slide, this means that they are unable to listen to you simultaneously. Slides should support what you are saying: they do not need to contain all the detail. As a general rule, use no more than five lines on a slide and no more than five words per line. Remember, this indicates a maximum number: one line or even one word may be more effective in some cases. Also, remember to only present one message on each slide. Often a picture can communicate more effectively than words. If you present complicated information involving facts and figures, you can use a graph or a diagram. Make them as simple as possible and only include the information that really matters. If you decide to use a video to illustrate a point which you are making, do not forget to explicitly justify its relevance. Also, as your presentation time is limited, make sure your video is brief and concise. To integrate the video into your presentation, try playing it in the mute mode and provide the voice over. Often presenters get the audience to focus on the slides. Slides make presenters feel safe but poorly designed slides may put the audience off. Some practical tips to remember. - For a professional and dynamic effect, announce the next slide before clicking. This way you will be seen in control of the slides. Often, if you click before you speak, it looks as if the slides are in charge, not you. - When you want to refer to a particular place on a slide, you can use a laser pointer, or explain things verbally. You can use the following phrases. in the middle at the top at the bottom on the right/left in the top left corner in the bottom right corner - When you comment on visuals, describe them and interpret their message. On the horizontal axis you see the… The figures on the vertical axis are units of one thousand… This curve illustrates… This table shows three major trends. If you look at this graph, you will notice… The hard data indicate… but in reality… IX Embedding an audio or video file in your PPT If you need to embed an audio or a video file in your PPT (which is the case our bk4003 course), please find the instructions online. A sample instruction can be seen here.